Christmas REM Review and Analysis – December 2018

Introduction

The Christmas REM is making a festive return to Puzzle and Dragons and comes with several new cards along with some buffs to existing cards. Unfortunately, the event as a whole is underwhelming and is not surprising due to the fact that it only costs 5 Magic Stones.

5-stone events tend to be horribly top heavy as their lower rarities are simply filler/junk which makes it challenging to justify rolling in. Furthermore, the Christmas REM is one of the older events which means there are numerous old cards sitting at the bottom who have not received buffs or reworks for several years.

With all this in mind, I would be only inclined to do a free roll and possibly utilize the Monster Exchange system for a high rarity card if they are appealing.

This article will summarize each of the featured card’s strengths and weakness along with how to best use them.

Video commentary

—video coming soon—

Overview

Christmas REM Rarities

9 Star base

8 Star base

7 Star base

6 Star base

5 Star base

Christmas REM Rankings – December 13, 2018

S

A

B

C

D

All icons show most evolved form

Order within each tier is random and not reflective of ranking.

Regardless of card’s ranking, you should almost always keep it if it is your very first time acquiring them.

Limit Breaking

Limit Breaking is the process of leveling a card beyond level 99. This will unlock more weighted stats along with the potential to receive Super Awakenings. These additional awakenings can add significant power, but only function in solo mode.

Any card that can qualify for Limit Breaking will have their level displayed in blue and feeding a Super Snow Globe will push them beyond the level 99 cap.

Monster Exchange

The Monster Exchange System has mostly eliminated the need to roll in most events as players can simply trade in for a card of their choice. This is often done during lackluster events to avoid spending Stones on poor bottom rarity cards or to snipe a specific card if luck is not on your side.

Weapon Assists

Weapon Assists are a special evolution for select cards that will be used exclusively as inherits. This form retains the same base stats as the original form, but will also transfer over all awakenings on the Weapon Assist card and this occurs if the Awoken Assist is present.

My approach to Collab rolling

Rolling any Rare Egg Machine is a gamble and it becomes a matter of maximizing your rate of returns in an event.

This translates into rolling when the bottom rarity has high value as those will be the most common cards. Furthermore, I may utilize the Monster Exchange system to acquire the higher rarity cards if they will significantly advance my progress. As such, I tend to look most closely at the common cards to determine if it is worth rolling in.

This is just my own personal approach and everyone has different goals/motivations so take this section with a grain of salt.

The Fluffy Ilmina makes her return to the Christmas REM with a brand new evolution. This evolution not only gives her adorable mittens, but she gains monstrous weighted stats and Super Awakenings.

Her new evolution form grants +10% Team HP along with 1.5 seconds of orb movement time along with a single VDP and 7 Combo with the ability to gain either of those again or full bind immunity via Super Awakenings. This can be frustrating as all of them are valuable but only work in solo mode.

In terms of viability, Christmas Ilmina can fit well on any combo-based team such as Edward and Valkyrie – Ciel as her board changer fits well along with offering valuable bulk and VDP potential.

As a leader, Christmas Ilmina is a potent 7×6 card as she offers 12x ATK and 35% damage reduction when forming a heart cross. This can naturally have merit for Heart Cross teams who wish to improve their consistency as it should be possible to have 5 hearts present at all times. With that being said, it may have some value for 7×6 swapping as she offers damage reduction and a respectable multiplier.

Unfortunately, it is hard to justify Monster Exchanging for Christmas Ilmina as she does not offer enough to justify the cost. Furthermore, Heroine Ilmina is better suited to Ranking Dungeons as she does not require a Heart Cross, has 2 more Skill Boosts , 100,000 more True Damage, and a bi instead of a tri-elemental board.

Yog is often considered one of the premiere farming leaders due to the fact that they have a wonderfully high ATK multiplier and easy activation requirements. The same can be said about any of his/her Seasonal forms and the only thing that has changed is their colour along with Seasonals having superior awakenings and stats. With that in mind Christmas Yog probably indicates that we will have a Yog in each colour moving forward as Kali was so 2016.

In regards to Christmas Yog’s power, he rivals Beach Yog in that he has superior awakenings compared to the REM form but being Fire has some drawbacks.

Most notably will be both a lack of potential partners (as Christmas Yog will be scarce) along with Fire lacking a potent leader who deals large amounts of damage after matching orbs. Hino is far weaker compared to Vaj in essentially every way which can make it challenging to use as effectively. The main idea with using REM Yog with Vaj is to have reasonably potent ATK multiplier along with automatic execution against Resolve spawns.

Outside of well thought of farming scenarios, it may be challenging to use any Yog in longer or traditional content as the HP clause can become problematic when stalling or pre-emptives are involved.

Christmas Romia is a powerful card that lacks a true home. This is because Wood is not in the best place at this time in regards to top tier cards and someone like Zela is a more efficient damage stick. This can be frustrating because Christmas Romia has the potential to be strong but is also held back by the fact that Super Awakenings do not work in coop.

In this day and age, the meta is largely defined by high effective HP combo leaders and this can potentially hold true for Christmas Romia. She is able to provide 16x ATK and 50% Damage Reduction when matching Fire, Wood, and Dark orbs. With dual leaders, this becomes 256x ATK and 75% Damage Reduction which is equivalent to 4x effective HP. Sadly, the fact that one has to match 3 specific colours diminishes the overall potency as all the damage reduction is lost with otherwise. Perhaps one can pair with Diablos to ensure all 3 colours will be present via the 7×6 board but it does lower her potential damage and effective health.

As mentioned above, Wood has less top tier leaders at this point in time and while one can still use things like Vraska or Zela, Romia may just feel like an average sub, especially in coop where she does not gain access to her third 7 Combo . With that being said, if your main focus is solo mode, Christmas Romia will be a potent damage sub but lacks extra utility unless pursuing the VDP Super Awakening . Of course, it is her active skill that will help push her ahead of other Wood cards as it combines both a board changer (with Hearts) and skyfall buff all in one.

Christmas Kali is one of the original Christmas cards and by not receiving any meaningful buff has solidified the notion that GungHo no longer loves Kalis. Kali has been reskinned/recoloured numerous times but has quickly fallen out of favour despite the fact that Rainbow teams have some relevance again.

Regardless, Christmas Kali still has some potential, but is overshadowed in all regards by newer options. As a leader, Christmas Kali can form a 2.25x HP / 225x ATK / 2.25x RCV which is the same as Yusuke but with several key differences. Christmas Kali has minimal personal damage output which means 1/3 of your team (with dual leaders) will be dealing significantly less damage along with the full multiplier being tied to 5/6 element activation. This dilutes the damage output while Yusuke is able to enjoy bicolour boards along with high personal damage. With that being said, Christmas Kali has the potential to pair with stronger Rainbow leaders which can open up the doors for more players trying to push through end game content.

Pros

Cons

Reduce unable to match orb effects

Fire lacks an ideal 1-turn CD

Heart Crosses are awkward

Rows and Crosses are more awkward

REM Gremory is stronger

Christmas Gremory is another older card but did receive sizable buffs to her awakenings and Leader Skill. Unfortunately, she is still in an awkward place due to the fact that Heart Crosses are inconsistent along with requiring a 1-turn active skill to trigger her full multiplier. Granted the Halloween Myne can function, the fact that 1/6 of your actives is lost can be problematic.

The main reason why Heart Cross leaders tend to falter in this day and age is because they are orb hungry and their tankiness is reliant on having 5 Heart Orbs present at all times. This can result in excessive active skill usage along with difficulty in stalling.

With all that being said, perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Christmas Gremory is the fact that the 6-star GFE Gremory is vastly superior due to a higher multiplier and being better able to utilize Myne.

Pros

Cons

30% max HP heal

Situational inherit/sub on Christmas Yog

Horribly outdated card

LS is restrictive and low multiplier

Christmas Liu Bei suffers from the fact that he is an old card who has not received meaningful buffs or improvements. This results in him being a disappointing 7-star card as he is unable to effectively work in the vast majority of scenarios.

As a leader, he is far too orb hungry along with having low multipliers overall and his awakenings prevent him from being used as a sub on most teams.

Perhaps his only niche would be for his double orb changer and 30% max HP heal on Christmas Yog teams.

Pros

Cons

Dungeon Bonus

First card to have Light Attribute change

Allows for Light cheesing

Grants 2x more damage for Dark teams

Large assets

Attribute change is niche

TPA is a less desired awakening

Christmas Grida is very asset heavy and comes with the unique Light attribute change active. Generally speaking, changing a spawn’s attribute to a specific colour is used for cheesing purposes (using a high damage reduction leader to one colour) but with access to Kiri and the Puppeteers through the recent Ranking dungeons, players should already have several options.

With that being said, being the only card that can convert a boss to Light may have situational value but can also be used to bolster the damage Dark-based teams do as they will now deal 2x effective damage.

Finally, Christmas Grida comes with the rare Dungeon Bonus awakening which slightly increases the rank exp, monster exp, coins, and egg drop rate when playing solo. For the most part, this is a relatively underwhelming awakening as base for Veroah provides a significant boost along with coop being more efficient in most scenarios. However, if one can use Christmas Grida effectively in a solo setting, it can provide additional rewards.

Christmas Fagan is the final 7-star card in the Christmas REM and has mediocre capabilities as he is an older card. Unfortunately, he is just average overall as his second 7 Combo is tied to a Super Awakening (disabled in coop) along with the fact that his active skill has a 20 turn cooldown and does not provide much merit.

Christmas Fagan shares the same board changer as Tachibana but has far weaker secondary effects along with a significantly longer cooldown. This makes it challenging to inherit over top and somewhat forces him to be used in a rainbow setting to trigger his Skill Charge .

Taking all of that into consideration combined with the fact that his Leader Skill has 2 conditional requirements.

Pros

Cons

Double Coop Boost

High ATK stat in coop

Acts as a Button base

7 turn cooldown

Easier to inherit over

Pretty

Almost exclusively used for
Button farming in coop

More double Coop Boost cards exist

Less unique

Christmas Solais was one of the original double Coop Boost awakening cards. This grants her 2.25x stats in coop mode which helps bolster her ATK stat to wonderfully high values. While this may seem unusual at first (considering she has no true offensive awakenings), it does enable her to be a powerful Button base.

Button bases are cards who have high ATK values that inherit a damaging active skill. For example, using something like Grimmjow inherited on Christmas Solais will deal huge amounts of damage and enable the player to button their way through content. This facilitates faster clear times as there is no animation transition between floors.

While this is amazing, not many players are interested in this type of gameplay and results in Christmas Solais being underwhelming if not utilized as a Button base.

Pros

Cons

Lots of orb enhance

Can colour swap

Low cooldown board changer

Haku has not been meta for a long time

Christmas Haku was once a reasonable card but time has not been kind to her along with her REM cousin . This can be mostly attribute to the fact that neither possess overwhelming offensive awakenings that makes it hard to justify using them over other options.

The 5 Orb Enhances do ensure every orb that falls down will come enhanced which is a reasonable damage boost, but her low weighted stats are problematic as a whole.

Pros

Cons

100% damage shield vs Dark

Has become rare with REM renewal

Situational inherit

Only works against Dark spawns

Christmas Genie is an old card that has gained a bit more value with the REM Renewal removing her REM-equivalent from rotation. This makes it her active skill more unique and being able to provide 3 turns of 100% damage reduction against Dark spawns is invaluable.

Unfortunately, Christmas Genie only blocks damage from Dark spawns so careful planning must be used to ensure the active can be justified along with the spawn not changing colours.

Pros

Cons

Bum

Stockings

Provides little value

1 Dragon Killer is lackluster

Christmas Hatsume is a bottom rarity card that has so little value in today’s meta. This is because a single Dragon Killer is only 3x damage against specific spawns along with having low weighted stats and a lackluster active skill.

Perhaps the best thing about Christmas Hatsume is her artwork and stockings.

Pros

Cons

Cute

Has cats

Outdated card

Akin to non-Reincarnated REM form

Christmas Freyja is cute and somewhat suggestive with pose and Leader Skill being titled “Shall we warm up together?” Unfortunately, that is essentially all the good things going for her aside from her attractive artwork.

Pros

Cons

Double Column + Haste

Some farming builds can utilize this

Niche value overall

Christmas Castor & Pollux is an old card that still has relevance in certain farming set ups as the guaranteed spawning of a column can greatly hasten clear times. This is because there are leaders who can fully activate from 5 connected orbs and being able to use 1 active to solve 2 floors is invaluable.

Aside from this, Christmas Castor & Pollux will have less value but are still valuable in the off-chance one wishes to farm certain dungeons.

Pros

Cons

Christmas Venus is the final card in the Christmas REM and has modest potential overall that is sadly marred by her lack of weighted stats.

Firstly, Christmas Venus guarantees all Light orbs will fall down enhanced which can act as a passive damage boost to all Light cards while her 4 turn active can be easily inherited over. Furthermore, she passively has 50% damage reduction against Fire, Light, and Dark spawns which enables her to act as a Cheese leader.

Sadly, the need for Cheese teams comes down to personal preference along with it being challenging to use Christmas Venus as a traditional sub due to her low weighted stats.

Do I plan to roll?

I do plan on rolling the Fujimi Fantasia Bunko Rare Egg Machine as it does offer value across all rarities along with it being a debut event. This means several rolls should hopefully avoid duplicates but the event is still relatively top-heavy.

For my dream 8* card, Lina Inverse is the default winner and is a spectacular card overall. On the other hand, my choice for 7* was much closer as there are three I would ideally like to own: Gourry Gabriev , Sousuke Sagara , and Orphen .

Gourry Gabriev is able to function as an incredible Light sub but I already have a deep Light sub pool along with a complete Tifa x Haohmaru team. On the other hand, Sousuke Sagara would provide me with the fastest charging Leader Swap in the game that also comes with Resists. With that being said, I have not utilized Leader Swapping in a long time and am not sure if i would get enough value out of it.

As such, I feel that Orphen would benefit me the most as I did choose Zaerog Core as my free exchange and could subsequently build a powerful team with them. Finally, Majic Lin will provide me with the perfect 15-15 board for Ranking dungeons.

My Dream Rolls

8*

7*

6*

The above chart are the cards I would love to acquire from each rarity if I could choose one for my Mantastic account. This is my own personal opinion based on my Monster Box, goals and whether or not I have dupes.

Conclusion

The Christmas REM is a top-heavy 5 Magic Stone event with low minimal value at the bottom.

Despite the fact that the Monster Exchange system exists for this event, it would generally be unwise to trade in for anything as they are more luxury than practical for the average player.

My words of advice is to do the free roll and only continue of the artwork interests you.

Let me know what you think about the Christmas REM in the comments below.

I need your thoughts. I have pretty much all the top tier leaders with the exception of yusuke. I wanted to make zela team and I think have all the subs I need to make it work except wood has no good vdp (to my knowledge) until, enter christmas romia! I was thinking of pairing her with vishnu to make the team more consistant. I have the resources to trade but I’m unsure if I should or just wait for the next best thing and trade then. Thanks in advance. Love your work.

I have Ed, S.Roots, Bj, D.Meta. Ryune, Sylvie, Anubis/Diablos. But I only really use d.meta and bj. I have and use other teams depending on the dungeon or just to switch it up. But so far my zela draft team looks like this, Stone fist Zela- Vishnu- g.sonia- Stone fist Zela-(said monster here)-(friend leader) Diablos or Stone fist Zela. Omega inherit on Vishnu since I don’t have Carat for one hit kill damage. Other inherits are as needed or none since I think the team works best on shorter dungeons. But for that blank spot I thought G. Cotton for vdp but, I don’t have one and she’s hard to roll. So then I thought Christmas Romia. Plus she has green skyfalls for 4 turns which I can go back and forth Vishnu for consistency. Maybe pop a board for everything in between. Idk…….What do you think?

Turned out to be a bust doing six rolls where I got Fagan & 5 gold eggs. Lucky that I had extras from doing the 10 stone Godfest to get a third Ilmina, Yog, & Romia. I’ll place the Christmas Yog as the leader after I skill it up.

I’m wondering if I should get more Sonias(Already own 2 moris, the green one of the cycle, and beach gronia), another Amen for a helper just to mess around, or to save my MP for something upcoming. I’m willing to sell gentlemen, 4th ragdrag, and puppetteers as needed.

Main idea for multiple haste-bicolours is for rankings and the most you could ever need is 5 (but 4 is more common) so considering you have 4 the need to buy another is really dependent how likely you feel a crown is for you